Disabled woman stranded in hospital as family and council dispute care needs

A disabled woman from Glasgow has been stuck in hospital for 210 days as council officials fail to agree a care package with her family.

Janice Arundel, 58, was cleared as fit to leave the city’s Royal Infirmary in April and her newly purchased flat assessed as safe by the hospital and her occupational therapist.

However, Glasgow City Council maintain Ms Arundel’s care needs can only be adequately met in a residential care, claiming it is not safe for her to cared for at home.

Ms Arundel, who is blind and has learning disabilities, first came to hospital in November last year after falling and breaking two neck bones. Following treatment, she was cleared to leave hospital in April, but has since become one of 1,500 Scottish patients trapped in hospitals as a result of delayed discharge.

Her brother Douglas said his sister wants the care package put in place and said the family is willing to contribute to the cost.

Speaking to The Evening Times newspaper, he said: “I have a letter from an occupational therapist and the hospital to say Janice is safe to go home.

“The council say she is not fit to go home and instead want her to go into a residential facility. I’m not prepared to allow that to happen.

“Her needs have probably got slightly worse and she would need the care hours extended from morning till night. I believe there are other similar packages in place in Glasgow. I believe it is a cost issue with the council.”

The case was raised With Nicola Sturgeon at First Ministers Questions by Glasgow Labour MSP Anas Sarwar, who said it was a ‘scandal’.

He said: “Shona Robison’s delayed discharge record is nothing short of a scandal. The SNP promised to eradicate delayed discharge out of our NHS completely, but instead more than 1,500 patients were trapped in hospitals when they just want to go home.

“One of those patients is Janice Arundel. She is blind, has learning disabilities and will turn 59 on Christmas Eve. Her clearly emotional and distressed brother Douglas came to my surgery to explain that Janice has been in hospital since November 2015, having fallen and broken two bones in her neck.

“Janice was cleared to leave hospital in April and became a delayed discharge patient. She has been waiting 209 days at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. It should not take a question in Parliament to sort that, but sadly it seems that it does – despite Shona Robison promising to eradicate delayed discharge.

“This crisis adds more pressure to our hospitals, and our NHS staff who are over worked and undervalued by the SNP Government.  But rather than give social care the funding it needs to deliver for patients, the SNP has hammered the budgets of councils which provide social care, with more than £500million cut in the last year.

“That is why Labour will amend the Scottish budget to invest in our public services and stop the cuts to local services.”

In response, Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged that Ms Arundel’s case was ‘completely unacceptable’.

The First Minister said the Scottish Government was integrating health and social care in an attempt to solve the problem.

“We are seeing progress in reducing delayed discharges,” Ms Sturgeon said. “The number of bed days that are lost from delayed discharge has decreased over the past year, and the number of delayed discharges is on a downward trend, although I want that move downwards to be faster and more consistent.”